New 3M Line? Marleau back on the ice, skating with Malhotra and Mitchell — but that could change

With two days between games and four nights in Detroit on the horizon, the boss decided I should skip today’s skate and the Merc had Mark Emmons on the scene. Here’s his account:

Patrick Marleau was back on the ice and skated on a line with Manny Malhotra and Torrey Mitchell. The put Logan Couture on a line with Joe Thornton and Dany Heatley, but everybody involved indicated things could change between today and tomorrow’s opening faceoff.

Q: Healthy?

Marleau: “I’m feeling better, definitely.”

Q: What happened Thursday?

Marleau: “I was up all night before throwing up. I came to rink and got IVs. I just didn’t feel up to going out there. But I’m feeling a lot better now.

“Usually there’s sicknesses that you can play through, and I’ve been able to do that before. But this one was tougher than I expected. It was definitely tough to watch, but the other guys played great. It was a good first game for us.”

“Now I’m starting to keep everything down. I got somewhat of a meal down last night. I’m eating more now. So hopefully I’ll be fine.”

Q: Where will you play?

Marleau: “No idea. Todd does everything for a reason. So whatever he thinks is best and will help out team, he’ll do.”

Todd McLellan then repeated that Marleau will be ready to go Sunday.

Q: Where will he play?

McLellan: “We’re still rolling the numbers around a little bit.”

Q: What about the practice lines today?

McLellan: “I wouldn’t read much into that. You should know that by now.”

Moving on to Thornton:

On today’s lines: “Today Logan was on the left side and Dany was on the right. But you never know. It might change in the morning. It might change before the game. It might change after the first shift.”

On Marleau’s return:

“Patty brings so much to the table on the power play and the penalty kill. He’s been a big part of this team for a long time and it’s good to have him fresh.”

****I had a story in this morning’s print edition on the Sharks’ Game 1 success on special teams, both the power play and penalty kill. Normally I don’t refer back to something already circulating out there, but there was one section of the story that I’ll mention here just in case the crowd doesn’t track down every syllable we also run in the paper.

I asked Rob Blake about the effort to clear guys like Tomas Holmstrom and Dan Cleary out of their parking spot right in front of Evgeni Nabokov. And Blake corrected me, saying that trying to clear those guys out plays into their hands.

“If you’re going to go in there and try to wrestle around with them, that’s exactly what they want,” Blake said. “It’s a double screen, it makes it even harder” for Nabokov to see the puck.

“Moreso after the shot is taken,” he added, “then you’ve got to tie them up.”

****There’s a Cinco de Mayo parade in downtown San Jose tomorrow, but the Sharks are saying they’ve been told that the area around HP Pavilion should be back to normal by 12:15 p.m. or so, well in advance of the 5 p.m. faceoff.

Still, they asked the media to spread the word so people would be aware of the situation.

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

NickG – Not sure what your ASCII art is, but I’d guess that it’s a bald guy covering his face with his hand. Drew Remenda, perhaps?

Dirty

Whoa! I take off hella (that word is pure bay area!) early to Napa this morning and miss all kinds of posts. Am I crazy for rushing home to see what was going on within WTC?
My suggestion for the name of a non-troll friendly fellow hockey fan?

“Symba” as in symbiotic:
“Symbiotic relationships include those associations in which one organism lives on another (ectosymbiosis, such as mistletoe), or where one partner lives inside the other (endosymbiosis, such as lactobacilli and other bacteria in humans or zooxanthelles in corals). Symbiotic relationships may be either obligate, i.e., necessary for the survival of at least one of the organisms involved, or facultative, where the relationship is beneficial but not essential for survival of the organisms”.
Not to get all technical and “stuff”.

I rest my case…GMFSGDI! I cannot WAIT until the game!

PS- I’ve never seen the sunrise in Napa before and it was purely breath-taking and amazing. A friend asked me if i took a picture with my phone and I said “no, didn’t even think about it”. It was that mesmerizing.
Even more than the Golden Globes.
I highly encourage it!

Wings Demise 2010

If a sunrise in Napa looks great, imagine how a 35 lbs silver antique would look
in SJ!
Go Sharks, bring the heat, size, and intensity and the dings won’t stand a chance! Let’s hope special teams keeps clickin!

Dirty

yeah NickG, how about it? some ASII Art showing a person sitting on a hill watching the Cup in the sky as it rise?

Snowshovel- Thanks and likewise. About the avatar: it is a photo of the sun from Nasa.gov They run a pic of the day feature and that has provided me with fantastic desktop backgrounds and conversation starters that can’t be beat. Especially with this HD monitor and HDMI and all.

But I like to think that this particular one is a big ol’shark eye on fire peering at you!

Just about 8 hours and counting!!

Dirty

Puck- In my humble opinon, I don’t think T-Mac will do that except for special teams or for a quick minute or two just to play mind games. Unless of course they wreak some havoc and at that point all bets are off.

Snow Shovel

What happened to all of the Wings trolls? Usually they’re up first thing in the morning (and they are what – two hours ahead) firing away at us, whining and crying.

Couldn’t be that they are a little concerned – could it? Nah, of course not.

Nick

Ever notice how they have Pavelski play defense with Boyle on the PP, from time to time? If they had Thornton, Heatley, and Marleau out at the same time it’d be five medalists.

But, yeah, I’m hoping Marleau is on the third line. Who was Couture playing with in his big game against Colorado? Helminenenenen and McGinn? Hate to break that up, but against a veteran team like Detroit it’s probably a bad idea to have one line of all rookies…

Km

I think the sharks need speed on every line…the wings d, which loves to score, has to protect. And it seems that Lindstrom still has the offense but has lost a step on d, he was burned by the yotes a few times. The best way to neutralize his o his have him worried about protecting against speed. The best stat from Th – Wings shot in low 20’s, we will win 4 if that keeps up.

PoeticAppreciation

Snow Shovel, another funny poem, made me laugh. Then I wondered why I made it down to the #77 posting and no Detroiters had made an appearance. (Smiles smuggly and thinks, “thank you Sharks for that amazing scoreboard”)

BTW, congratulations to the Cannucks tarring the Hawks. (Another smile for Chistian Ehrhoff and Steve Bernier scoring). I’m not anti-Blackhawks, but the book I’ve begun writing has a Cannucks fan in it. LOL I’m hoping for the Sharks vs Cannucks playoff round next!

Marleau, glad you are feeling better! I’m on the side of honoring you for everything you’ve done for the sharks and for being among the elite players to have brought this expansion team where it is today. Short term memory and impatience can’t negate that.

Another Bay Area NHL team had a 3M line: the California Golden Seals had Dennis Maruk, Bob McAdam, & Gilles Meloche. It wasn’t technically a line, though, because Meloche was a goalie. This was in the early ’70s.